There are 150 or so seats in the new (relocated) Magenta Theater at 1101 Main St., and on April 1, at least 100 were occupied — just barely — by people perched eagerly on the edges.
Did that ill-advised marriage last? Did those girls parade all the way across Seattle in high heels? C’mon, was that dude really levitating?
Live storytelling, probably the oldest art form on Earth, has gotten a jolt of energy. New events regularly pop up, with snappy, memorable names.
The Fort Vancouver Regional Library District has “Off the Page,” emphasizing that the stories are told, not read; Battle Ground has “Front Porch BG” because a porch is the transition zone between private and public, where friends hang out and tell tales. The nationwide trend-setter is “The Moth,” named for those little fliers that swarm the porch light while stories are swapped.
There are still more layers — literally — to the name of Magenta Theater’s storytelling series, “The Edge.” The obvious one is that great stories pull listeners to the edges of their seats. You also could say that live storytelling without a script is a pretty brave and edgy endeavor.
But that word, “edge,” goes deeper still. In fact it goes right into the brick wall of the small auditorium at 606 Main St., which Magenta called home for years. A tight and inconvenient little home for sure — but one that worked out surprisingly well, too.
Among those surprises: two huge, stylized words that came with the space. “The Edge” was on display on a big, weird layer of concrete — a sort of permanent sign — that had been affixed to the bricks. It’s a sort of illusion by design: it looks like a deeper layer of brick that’s been revealed. A previous landlord asked Magenta not to do anything else to the brick, so “The Edge” just hung there. The audience rarely noticed it, Magenta founder Jaynie Roberts said, because it was behind their backs when facing the stage.
That previous landlord had an inkling that “The Edge” was some sort of booze-free teen club — but nothing definite. Before Magenta, there was a different theater company in the same space called Arts Equity, which specialized in challenging, edgy performances. Before Arts Equity, the space was a pawn shop called Family Loans. The owner was arrested and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for possessing methamphetamine, unlawfully issuing bank checks and identity theft.
All in all, then, Magenta’s “The Edge” sure comes by that name honestly. Excellent cred for a storytelling series that aims to keep you on that part of your seat.
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story, or just tell a story.
